Death Threats In the Blogosphere

Several readers have written in about the death threats and threats of sexual harm that have been directed at tech blogger Kathy Sierra. She is the author of a number of books about Java and a popular speaker at conferences. She has now stopped blogging and cancelled her appearance at eTech. She names the names of four prominent bloggers who are backers of two sites on which the threats were posted. Others in the blogosphere like Robert Scoble and Tim Bray have posted publicly in support of Sierra. Scoble in particular emphasizes the streak of misogyny that is still all too evident in the tech world. The Washington Post is also grappling with the issue of vile comment posts that flirt with illegality. One commenter on Bray's post summed it up: "The Internet used to be a university. Then it became a shopping mall. But now, it's a war zone."

Comments

get bent

[Ender Ryan]

For those in the slashdot community with any knowledge of who might be making these posts, it is incumbent upon you to bring forward that information.

No, no it's not.

For those in the slashdot community with some sniffing/hacking skills (mine are rusty), have at it deducing who the asswipes are, find them, and report them.

Now that IS definitely illegal. I don't know that the supposed death threats are really illegal; they appear to me to be jokes, admittedly offensive, inappropriate and mean, but jokes nonetheless.

It's not for me to say, or anyone else on /. to say either.